Chicago-area Hospitals Get Funds To Uplift Homeless Vets

January 03, 1994|By Jerry Thomas, Tribune Staff Writer.

During the Vietnam War, Merril Dingle's job was to sneak on the battlefield and report on everything he saw, the number of enemy troops, their locations and their firepower. He learned how to survive under extreme conditions, by hiding in swamps, rice fields and on hilly terrain. He lived when many others around him died.

Today, Dingle, a 39-year-old Chicago resident, is fighting another war. His battlefield is the streets of Chicago.

Dingle, who served in the Army, is one of an estimated 17,000 homeless veterans in the Chicago area and one of 250,000 in the United States.

About one-third of all homeless people are veterans, officials say. After putting their lives on the line for their country, they have fallen on hard times.

In December, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offered assistance to homeless veterans when it announced the allocation of an additional $20 million to VA hospitals, including $700,000 for Chicago-area VA hospitals.

The Hines VA hospital near west suburban Maywood, for example, will receive about $130,000, while $185,000 has been allocated to the Westside VA hospital in Chicago.

Officials at the two hospitals say the money will be used to expand outreach services to veterans, which includes counseling for mental illness and chemical dependency, and placing some veterans in temporary shelters with outside agencies.

The North Chicago VA hospital at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center will be awarded about $350,000 to add 40 beds to its 60-bed shelter for veterans, officials say.

A building across the street from the shelter is being renovated to house the 40-bed center, scheduled to open in the summer.

Larry Mathis, a 30-year-old homeless veteran from Chicago, remembers his first encounter with the Great Lakes center last August. He had joined the U.S. Navy in 1989, leaving two years later.

"I totally lost myself through drugs and alcohol and what my aim in life was," said Mathis, who added that his drug habit consumed his earnings and left him homeless.

He returned to Chicago and entered a 28-day drug treatment program at the North Chicago hospital before entering the domiciliary. He was too ashamed to live with his family.

Today, he looks like the executive he always wanted to be, dressed in a tweed wool jacket and wool pants, a tie, shirt and fancy black boots. The program, he said, has helped him get in touch with who he really is.

"I don't need alcohol and drugs to make me what I am," said Mathis, who wants to become a drug counselor when he leaves the program in several months.

The funds from Washington, homeless advocates say, represent just a drop in the bucket to the growing problem, which is now claiming younger veterans, including women, who recently served in the Gulf War. Some homeless veterans believe the solution is helping the veterans obtain permanent and affordable housing.

"Homeless veteran groups are particularly interested in the property at Ft. Sheridan," said Joseph Clary, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to End Homelessness.

As a result of the McKinley Act, passed by Congress in 1986, some homeless groups contend they are entitled to some of the surplus property on the closed Lake County base and say they plan to compete with developers, who want to build luxury homes on some of the prime lakefront property.

VA officials say they also are interested in the Ft. Sheridan property. "We are trying to work with (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)," said Kenneth McKinnon, the VA spokesman in Washington.

"We had a number of people coming in, almost like a revolving door," said Annie Pope, chief of social work at the Hines hospital, which started working with the homeless in 1987. "We did a survey and we were able to document that these individuals were homeless people."

That same year, the North Chicago hospital received a $1 million grant to become a pilot program to house homeless veterans. Since then, about 900 veterans have stayed in the red brick facility in a campus-like area on the Navy base.

"We could run 65 beds here most of the time, but we are not authorized to do that legally," said Greg Gola, chief of domiciliary services, who says the shelter receives about 15 requests every week for bed space. "What that says is we have unmet demands out there."

VA officials say they still are studying why a disproportionate number of homeless people are veterans.

The upheaval of war, they note, is a contributing factor for some, especially those who were physically and mentally injured or found to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But VA officials believe many other factors cause former military people to end up on the streets.

"Veterans might have some unique problems, but because you are a veteran does not mean those problems from the military are the reasons you are homeless," McKinnon said. "It could be because you lost your job, the economy or because you have a health problem (not related to the military)."

McKinnon said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown will hold the nation's first summit for homeless veterans in February in Washington.

The goal is to increase public awareness of the problem. Meanwhile, McKinnon said the VA is pleased with several programs that have helped veterans return to the American mainstream, including its 31 domiciliaries.